Standard rectangular military type connectors such as M24308/4-15 AMP No. 79-35 must be provided with a housing to protect the back end of the connector and the fine wires of the cable where the cable insulation has been removed and to provide a tight connection between the housing, the connector, and the cable so that the cable cannot be pulled out of the housing, destroying the connections.
The housings provided by the connector manufacturers utilize various clamps for rigidly gripping the cable. However these clamps usually engage the cable over a very short distance and repeated flexing of the cable at the clamp leads to cable failure. Furthermore, the housings provided by the manufacturers are very expensive and the cables usually exit the housing directly behind and in a direction away from the connector which is undesirable from the standpoint of space and cable layout in many instances.